It’s enough to make Benny’s woollen hat fall off his head!

The earliest surviving episode of cult ITV soap Crossroads has been uncovered and will get a World Exclusive airing on itv.com this Friday, with the chance to buy it on DVD the week after.

Experts uncovered the 1965 episode in an unmarked tin in the old ATV archive, which now resides in west London. They thought most of the episodes from the decade had been lost forever as they used to tape over every episode after it was broadcast.

But eagle-eyed archivists spotted the black-and-white gem whilst looking for other episodes for a future DVD release of classic episodes from the Birmingham-based drama.

After finding two reels of film from 1973, they discovered a third can, labelled only “BM TR 2096″, and this was also laced up and run. It became clear that it was episode 126 from 1965 – and it’s an important snapshot of the earliest days of the soap.

Now ITV.com will be showing the ‘lost episode’ online from Friday morning. Fans of the show- where some of the acting was more wooden than the sets – can watch the episode for free at www.itv.com/crossroads.

They will also be able to pre-order the DVD of the other two ‘missing’ episodes from 1973 as well as the 1965 show.

The premiere of this find marks a major re-launch of ITV.com’s archive video section, which contains full-length episodes of shows like Rising Damp, Survival and Joe 90.

Marc Webber, Head of Content at ITV.com said “Crossroads will always have a place in people’s hearts. People poked fun at it for its wobbly sets and bad acting, but it continually attracted millions of viewers every week. Hopefully, some of those fans will join us on itv.com for a brilliant trip down memory lane this weekend.”

Tim Beddows from Network DVD said “The discovery has wowed fans of classic British television, as it’s by far the earliest surviving example. It dates from April 1965, just months into the series’ run, when the show was broadcast five nights a week. At the time, the only comparable serials were Granada’s Coronation Street and the BBC’s Compact, both of which could be seen twice a week – so a five nights a week soap was a completely new idea – and particularly hard work to produce!.”

Originally broadcast five nights a week, Crossroads was the UK’s first true “soap” but that didn’t stop critics mocking its low-cost production and melodramatic storylines. Comedians often joked that characters were always vanishing without a trace and no-one would notice. In 1967, the coffee bar manager went to get some sugar and was never seen again. The mockery culminated in comedienne Victoria Wood’s spoof soap Acorn Antiques which mercilessly parodied the wobbly scenery, fluffed lines and transparent scripts.

For all the derision heaped on the show, it maintained high ratings and a loyal audience throughout the course of its original run, 1964 until 1988. Sadly less than half of these survive, as like much of Britain’s TV heritage; it was deemed to have little commercial value for the future and erased.

If you think you’ve got a lost episode of Crossroads, itv.com would like to hear from you. They are interested in any recordings of episodes broadcast before 1982 – on videotape or could even on reels of film! If you think you’ve got something in your garage or loft, drop the team a line at lost.crossroads@itv.com.